Meiji Memorial Hall, Tokyo, 2012

This project shows an unexpected side to Shur, who, as one of the most sought-after portraitists, has photographed celebrities from Helen Mirren and Lupita Nyong’o to Will Ferrell and Larry David. By contrast, Super Extra Natural! sees her train her lens on an altogether quieter world

Playground, Atami, 2013

Orange Ladder, Tokyo, 2014

The body of work these journeys to Japan produced is both luminous and opaque. Even when photographing seemingly inconsequential details – the base of a ladder on a patch of dirt, say – Shur has an eye for salient colour, graphic shadow and tactile texture

Osaka Station, Osaka, 2015

‘It was clear from the start that [in Japan] I had found my place,’ says Shur. ‘A country whose natural beauty is accentuated by thoughtful design, a culture that values simplicity and kindness, yet also embraces the completely absurd’

Ferry Ride, Seto Inland Sea, 2013

Perhaps because Shur undertook the project with no defined goal – nor itinerary – other than to keep an open mind, the images are infused with a sense of waiting and time slowed down; expectation and frustration in equal measure

Belongings, Enoshima, 2010

If her Japanese explorations were freeing adventures, they also came with strain and fatigue. ‘Maintaining the intoxication of seeing anything with fresh eyes eventually becomes its own challenge,’ says Shur

White Van, Miyajima, 2012

Stone in the Snow, Yamanouchi, 2011

‘I learned to surrender to and embrace the unexpected,’ says Shur. ‘What I thought would be interesting sometimes wasn’t, but someof my favourite images were taken because I went the wrong way or got lost’